Over the past week, SPIDER has made a lot of progress! Our cryostat (Theo) and the gondola are together at last, Theo has been filled with liquid helium, and we have cold detectors (almost -273 Celsius). And things seem to be working well. Which is a little unsettling…
Johanna is punchy
Arts and crafts continue
Rounding the edges of the baffles
Say hello to Ivan's little friend
New carbon fibre, as a backup plan for dealing with the damaged gondola tube
Pivot "earrings"
New custom shackles to adjust for geometry
Pivot heaters and wiring
The belly of Theo
Neatly routed cables
By Sasha and I
Damaged board
Exploded capacitor
After letting the magic black smoke out, it no longer works. I replace it (and some other damaged parts)
Trouble with the motorized valves
Anne and I worry about this
Teaser: Theo on the gondola
I will make a separate post soon for lift day
The bare sun shields
Taking up all the space recently vacated by Theo
Condition 2
Low visiblity
Faceless person works on star cameras
John constructs a scale to weigh helium dewars during fills
Don repairs a cable
Jamil attaches the elevation locks
And pauses to examine the source of annoying shutter sounds
More star camera boxification
Sasha is angry about sucky cables
Johanna in her black box
Routing fiber optic cables
Wrench dance?
Featuring Cynthia
Late shift prepares to fill liquid helium
I leave and miss the action
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